“Give me your phone.” I held my hand out.
“Excuse me?”
“Your phone. Give it to me,” I insisted. “Lee wasn’t in our room. I waited around for a while, so we could come here to meet the guys together, but he never showed. I texted him, but he didn’t answer. And, now you’re telling me he missed class. That doesn’t sound right. I’m going to head back to our dorm to see if he’s there. I want you to text me if he shows up here.”
She blinked. “Oh. Okay. Sure.”
She passed me her phone, and I input my number before pressing send to make a call. My cell rang, and I saved her number. “There. Now, like I said, if he comes in after I leave, send me a text and let me know.”
I handed her cell back to her. Her face broke into a wide smile when she took it. “This is a joke, right? Some warped way to get my number?”
I pushed myself away from the bar and stood. “If I wanted your number, I’d straight up ask. I’m not the type who enjoys playing games.” My words weren’t harsh; they were honest. From the look in her eyes, she seemed offended, though. Maybe I’d made it sound as though I wasn’t interested in her with what I’d said, which couldn’t be further from the truth, but she didn’t need to know that. I’d let her think what she wanted. I had other things to worry about—like where Lee was.
How was it possible he’d skipped a class? Essentials for him was before lunch. Had he gone to any classes before that?
I hustled to the exit, ignoring Alan and the others asking where the hell I was going. I didn’t have time to fill them in. My gut told me something was wrong.
When I made it back to the dorms, I bolted up the stairs toward the fourth floor and then dashed down the hall to our room. I swung the door open to find it still empty. Lee wasn’t here. My eyes snapped to the area beside the desk where he usually kept his backpack—it was empty. He hadn’t been here. Shit. I grabbed my cell and instead of shooting him another text, I called. It rang until his voicemail came on. I hung up. My gaze darted around the room. It was then I noticed his comic book collection was missing from the shelves above the desk.
What the hell?
I stepped farther into the room and noticed the desk was clean. Too clean. Nothing was on it. Nothing was in it. The shelves above were bare. I bolted across the room to Lee’s dresser. When I opened the top drawer, it was empty. So were all the others. I stepped to the closet. His clothes were gone.
My head cocked to the side as I backed away from the closet. What the hell was going on? Where were Lee’s things? Where was Lee? Had his stuff been here when I left to go to the bar earlier? Or had he packed up in the last thirty minutes and left? Left to where?
The room spun. My gut twisted. There was something wrong.
I swung the door to the dorm open and slammed it shut behind me before stalking down the hall to our advisor’s dorm. Pete would know what was going on. He’d be able to tell me where Lee was.
My mind raced as I walked. Had he swapped for a new roommate? I thought we’d gotten along good, but maybe I’d been wrong.
I knocked on Pete’s door, hoping he was home and not out celebrating making it through another week here like I should be. Like Lee should be with me. When no one came to the door right away, I knocked again.
“Yeah?” Pete shouted through the door before he swung it open. He sounded irked, but when he saw me, his back straightened and his pissed off expression melted away. He folded his arms over his chest and glared at me. I knew he was trying to make himself seem intimidating, but I wasn’t about to call him on it. All I wanted to know was if he knew where Lee was. “What’s up?”
“Lee. My roommate. Where the fuck did he go?” The words grounded out with more force behind them than necessary, but I was having a hard time controlling my demons with my head being such a mess.
Something passed through Pete’s eyes, but it was gone before I could name it. His hands dropped to his sides. “You didn’t know he planned on dropping out, I take it.”
I blinked. Dropping out? Lee? Not a chance in hell. He’d never drop out. “He wouldn’t do that. He loves this place.”
Pete shrugged. “Sorry, man. I don’t know what to tell you.”
“No, I’m not buying it.” I shook my head. “He didn’t even tell me he was having problems.”
“Sometimes they don’t. Sometimes they just dip out without a word.” Pete slapped me on the shoulder. “Most of the time, the roommate misses the signs. There are always signs though. Always.”
My chest tightened. I couldn’t imagine Lee doing that. He would have said something to me if he was having problems, wouldn’t he? My mind raced. Were there signs I’d missed? “Did he swing by here before he left?”
“Yeah.”
“What did he say? What reason did he give for leaving?”
“Oh, I didn’t see him. When I came back from my last class, the dropout form was shoved beneath my door.” He scratched his neck. “Most who drop out don’t see me face-to-face to do it. I think it’s because they worry I’ll try to talk them out of leaving.”
“Did you go to our room to try to talk some sense into him?” I asked, unbelieving it could be that easy to leave a place like this.
Pete shook his head. “Nah. Dropouts are common. Some can’t handle the rules. Some can’t handle being around other werewolves. Some can’t handle the classes. Everyone has their reason, and it’s not my business as to what that reason is. We’re all adults here. If someone wants to leave, I let them.”
My fist clenched at my side. I’d really thought Lee and I were closer than that. If he’d been thinking of leaving, he would have said something to me. At least, I thought he would.
I guess I was wrong.
“Look, I understand you thought the two of you were friends, that he wouldn’t have left without saying something to you, but he did. Everyone always thinks that whenever their roommate dips out. The problem is, they don’t say shit to anyone because they’re afraid to admit they can’t handle it here. I’ve seen it half a dozen times. Don’t take it personally.”
I wanted to tell him he didn’t know what the hell he was talking about, that he didn’t know Lee, but instead I clamped my mouth shut and headed back to my dorm. Once inside, I closed the door firmly behind me and pulled out my cell to call him again. Just like before, it rang until it went to his voicemail.
Damn it.
Without thinking through what I was doing, I pulled up Faith’s number and called her. It rang four times before she answered, the noise of the bar filtering through the phone.
“Hey, Axel,” she said. “I wasn’t expecting you to call me so soon.”
“Is Lee there?”
Please let him be there, drinking a beer and laughing with the guys.
“Nope. Haven’t seen him. I messaged Nora to see if he was in the library, but she checked and he’s not there either. Everything okay?”
“No.” I closed my eyes and smoothed a hand over my face as a sigh escaped me. “What time do you get off?”
“Now that’s a line I’ve heard before.” Amusement hung in her tone.
“It’s not a line. My gut is telling me something’s off about all this. I need someone who knows him to help me find him.”
“Eleven,” she said, all the amusement gone from her tone. “I get off at eleven.”
“See you then.” I hung up. I didn’t know if pulling her into this was the right thing to do—hell, I didn’t even know what I was pulling her into—but my gut was telling me something had happened to Lee.
Things weren’t adding up.
My gaze drifted around the room again, seeing if there was anything I’d missed. Something in the closet caught my eye, causing my gut to twist.
The comic card in the plastic frame he was obsessed with. It was still there.
Faith
I popped the lid off my latte, so it could cool after situating myself across from Axel. We sat in awkward silence, him refusing to even lo
ok at me. I could tell it was because there was a lot on his mind. He looked distraught. Worried. The area between his brows was pinched tight, and he chewed the inside of his cheek. I tried not to stare, but it was hard not to.
His tongue snaked out to moisten his lips, and I felt the area between my thighs warm. He chose that moment to look up. His eyes locked with mine, and I wondered if he knew where my thoughts had dipped. Could he sense it? My arousal?
“So,” I said, feeling unease twist in the pit of my stomach. “What do you think happened to Lee? You said you have a bad feeling?”
“I can’t explain it.” His eyes darkened. “Something isn’t right about the whole thing.”
“What thing?” I didn’t understand what he was getting at.
“Lee didn’t just skip class. Apparently, he dropped out.”
I blinked. “What? There’s no way he would do that.” I knew I didn’t know Lee super well, but I knew him well enough to know he wouldn’t do something like that. Not without a serious reason behind it. “Is his stuff gone? How do you know he dropped out?”
“Yeah, it’s gone. I also talked to Pete, our advisor, and he said Lee turned in the dropout form to him.”
I shook my head, sending a few stray hairs free from my updo. No wonder Axel looked so distraught; this was crazy. “That can’t be right. Lee wouldn’t have just dropped out like that. He wouldn’t have done it without saying something to someone.” I locked eyes with Axel. “Did he say anything to you about leaving?”
“No. That’s why this isn’t making sense. I’m assuming he didn’t mention anything to you either, right?”
“Not at all.”
I leaned back in my seat and reached for my latte to take a sip. My mind flashed through the last couple of weeks, searching for any sign Lee had been thinking of dropping out. Nothing came to mind. There had been cuts and bruises on Lee from time to time, though.
The Viking-looking guy with the scar.
The few times I’d seen Lee with him, he always seemed tense and uneasy. Could he have been the reason Lee left the academy?
“Was he having problems with someone?” I asked, wondering if Lee had mentioned the guy to Axel.
“No, why?”
“Because I think he may have been bullied.”
Axel grinned. It was a sexy lopsided grin that did things to me, which seemed inappropriate for the situation we were in. “Why do you think that?”
He was his roommate, hadn’t he seen the cuts and bruises on Lee? Although, hadn’t I saw them on him too? Were they beating each other up? Why didn’t I press Lee for answers about where they’d come from?
“I noticed Lee had bruises and cuts a few times over the past few weeks. A couple times he even came to class holding his ribs like he’d broken something. Every time I asked him about it, he always said he couldn’t talk about it.” I watched Axel, trying to judge his reaction. He was hard to read, though. “I’m thinking someone was bullying him. The question is, who?”
“He wasn’t being bullied.”
“How can you be so sure? I remember this muscular guy with a scar who looks like a Viking, that Lee always seemed uneasy and tense around, talking to him a few times.”
“That would be Bryant. He wasn’t bullying Lee.” Axel’s tone was so confident it irked me.
“You didn’t see the exchanges between them like I did. Lee seemed freaked out by him.”
Axel took a sip from his coffee. It was black. No cream. No sugar. I shivered as I thought about how bitter it would taste. “It’s not what you’re thinking. Bryant wasn’t bullying Lee. Their exchanges were all part of something else.”
“Like what?” I narrowed my eyes on him.
“I can’t say.”
I pushed away from the table and folded my arms over my chest. If he wanted me to help him find Lee, then he needed to give me all the details. “You asked me here because you’re worried about him. You think something bad might have happened. Yet, I’m here telling you things that might equate to a possible cause for his disappearance, and you’re nearly laughing at me while withholding information. How the hell are we supposed to work together on this if you’re not telling me everything?”
“Point made.” Axel nodded. “All right, I’ll tell you, but you can’t tell anyone else. This has to stay between us.”
I took a sip of my latte, my eyes never wavering from his. “Fine.”
“There’s an underground fight club here that Lee and I are a part of. Bryant too. He runs the thing, actually. That’s why you saw Lee and him talking. It’s also why you saw the bruises and cuts on his face from time to time. Mine too.”
I broke out into laughter that I couldn’t contain. “You really expect me to believe that? Lee was too nerdy to be in something like that. I can’t even imagine him volunteering for it. There’s no way he’d have taken part in it of his own accord.”
“Well believe it, because he did. He was pretty damn good at it too. It’s the quiet guys you have to watch out for. Most of the time they have a lot of pent-up anger inside.”
I searched his face for any sign he was teasing, but there was none. Axel was serious. There was an underground fight club at Lunar Academy, and he and Lee were a part of it.
What. The. Hell.
I leaned forward, placing my palms on the table between us. “You’re serious?”
“As a heart attack, darlin’.”
“First off, don’t call me darlin’. I don’t do pet names. Second, how did I not know something like that existed here? Are females not allowed?”
“Actually, there are a few. Bryant doesn’t allow them to fight with men, but they sure are kicking each other’s asses twice a week.”
My skin prickled with excitement. So did my wolf.
“Again, how the hell did I not know something like this existed?”
“It’s invite only, and we keep it under wraps.” He shrugged.
Okay, so apparently, I wasn’t cool enough to be on the invite list. Whatever.
“So, if he wasn’t being bullied, then what was going on? We both agree that we don’t think Lee would’ve up and left without saying anything. What do you think happened?”
“I’m not sure.” He scratched at his neck. “I don’t know where we go from here either.”
“How about we head back to your place and search for clues,” I suggested, not thinking through the way it sounded.
Axel’s eyes twinkled with amusement. “Is that a line?”
“I don’t need lines.”
“Touché.” He chuckled. He took another sip from his black coffee and then leveled his eyes with mine. His face turned serious again, and I knew that our teasing moment was over. “I did look around while I was in the dorm last. All of his stuff was gone except for his favorite comic card he always kept in a case. He used to get onto me about slamming our dorm room door too hard and knocking it over. It was his prized possession, and I know there’s no way he would’ve left it behind. That’s what really has my gut twisting about this situation.”
A lump formed in my throat. Had someone else packed up Lee’s things and accidently left that behind, not knowing how much it meant to him?
My stomach flipped.
I popped the lid for my latte back on and pushed my chair out to stand. “Let’s see if there’s anything you might have missed.”
“Sounds like a plan.” Axel grabbed his coffee and stood as well. “And, thanks for agreeing to help me work through this.”
I glanced at him. “No problem. Lee is my friend, too.”
“I know. That’s one of the reasons I sought you out.”
We exited the coffee shop near Last Call without another word and headed back in the direction of Lunar Academy.
It was about a twenty-minute walk before we were back on campus. We headed straight for the Wolf Blood dormitory and climbed the stairs. When we reached the fourth floor, I followed Axel down the hall to his room. It was past the co-ed curfew, but ever
yone who looked our way didn’t seem to care. They flashed us a knowing smirk that suggested we were off to do something we weren’t, and my insides fluttered. I hadn’t thought about how it would look—me going into Axel’s room so late in the evening. This was exactly how rumors got started, but there was nothing I could do about it now. We’d already been spotted.
Besides, I wanted to scope out Lee’s side of the dorm and see if anything else had been forgotten or a clue had been left behind.
Axel opened the door to his room and then motioned for me to step inside first. As I did, his cologne filled my nose. It did things to me that I tried my damnedest to ignore. He closed the door behind us, and I forced my eyes to glance around the room. It was clear which side was Axel’s. The bed was unmade, and his uniform lay on the floor. A few personal items could be spotted here and there, but nothing major like posters or pictures. I turned my attention to Lee’s side of the room and noticed it was bare.
“I see what you mean. It looks like everything of his was wiped out.” I stepped farther into the room. “Did you already look through his drawers and stuff?”
“Sort of. I went through everything pretty quick. There didn’t seem to be anything left behind, though.”
I still checked for myself. Once I saw they were empty, I headed to the closet. The comic card Axel mentioned was on the shelf. I recognized the guy on it. Lee had a few t-shirts of him too.
“There’s nothing else here,” Axel insisted. “This just doesn’t make any sense.”
“Well, what do we know to be true?” I asked. “The paperwork says Lee dropped out. His stuff is gone to back that up, but he forgot to take his most prized possession with him. Was he in a hurry to leave, or did someone else pack his things for him? Did someone do something to him, and this is their way to cover it up?” The thought crashed over me like ice water.
Shit. Was that what happened here?
“I’m not sure. I don’t know why he would have been in such a hurry to leave, but I also don’t know why someone would pack his stuff for him to cover anything up. I mean, this is Lee we’re talking about. He’s a nice guy. I can’t think of a single soul who didn’t like him or would want to hurt him.”
Wolf Blood: Lunar Academy, Year One Page 10